Why The Walking Dead Is Important To Games

The Walking Dead surprised the industry and received a megaton of critical acclaim. If you asked most gamers at the beginning of the 2012 whether video games would be legitimized in the storytelling space, most would confidently have said, no. Both strong characters and mature themes sucked players into the bold narrative direction Telltale Games created, but regardless of its fanfare, some gamers have questioned whether the point-and-click adventure deserves the avalanche of hype. Captivation aside, players make the argument that The Walking Dead isn't much of a game. In the traditional sense, it's hard to dispute. The Walking Dead is primarily story-driven with gameplay serving a supplemental role.

Games like Bioshock make great strides to treat players like adults by delivering a compelling plot. But at its best, Bioshock made you think about interesting ideologies, without letting you partake in a genuine resolution to those ideologies. The story and gameplay of Bioshock are separate entities and the same could be said for many popular games regarded as having great story components. I believe The Walking Dead is so impactful on players, because the gameplay is so directly tied to the story. Nearly every gameplay device serves the narrative and further draws the player into its characters and plot.

Gameplay has a disjointed relationship with story in most games used to qualify another game's merits. Generally speaking, gameplay mechanics take priority over story and because of this, gameplay and story tend to feel like separate entities. While The Walking Dead is by no means the first game to prioritize story over gameplay, it certainly does the best job of marrying the two. Gameplay mechanics are subtle and almost always serve the progression of the narrative. The dialogue tree, dialogue fuse and even quicktime events all have implications on how the story plays out. Though the gameplay isn't as apparent as shooters or action games, what's sparingly used is part of why players feel such a strong stake in how the narrative plays out.

Strong Narrative

Video game stories are often graded on a curve and prior to this year, a good story in video game terms could be considered throwaway in other story-driven mediums. Rather than focusing on a rich lore that can open the door to gameplay opportunities, Telltale Games directs its efforts on making the player feel invested in the narrative and obligated to the characters. Each character could possibly be viewed as separate, but equal facets of the main protagonist's point of view. Choosing to side with a given character plays to any number of valid emotional responses. While the group begins to splinter as the weight of the environment presses, the player can understand each point of view, making choosing a side difficult, rather than clear cut.

Treating players like adults is rare in a video game. At a point, you become desensitized to how often the stories and dialogue insult any relatively intelligent person. Sacrifice, death, nurturing and racial stereotypes could all easily fall short, but The Walking Dead handles all this mature subject matter with respect for the player. There are no absolutes. Games that employ a dialogue tree often have a transparent level of morality, making it easy for the player to decide to be good or choose to be bad. There is no correct answer or way to achieve the best ending in The Walking Dead. Some of the most difficult choices in The Walking Dead tread through ominous shades of grey, costing Clementine a piece of her innocence or possibly a group member's life. Often games downplay death and consequence and this is not that game. Every choice leads to some sacrifice and you'll never come out of a situation saying, "Well, that went well." It's nature is by design, but until you've compared playthroughs with others, you feel as if you're responsible for the game's outcome.

Episodic Distribution

Devoting a large chunk of time to game in a single sitting is a luxury not all of us have. Not to take anything away from titles like Skyrim or FarCry 3, but being able to invest a couple hours and feel like you've accomplished something is an admirable quality. While I'm a sucker for time sinks like Dark Souls or Guild Wars 2, my free time is finite, so I often gravitate towards smaller-scale experiences, due to the instant gratification offered. Episodic games makes that possible. It's not a new distribution method, but it's grown in popularity and effectiveness over the last few years with Telltale Games generally holding the torch.

Most of their releases employ the episodic distribution method and with The Walking Dead it seems like they've found the sweet spot. Comprised of five separate episodes, each lasting roughly as long as it takes to watch a movie, players can easily get a sense of closure between each part. There's an overarching story happening and an exclusive story to each episode. This is a familiar model for television and for the first time, people are discussing a game in the way we dissect a good television show. If you were in the circle of people playing each individual episode as they came out, comparing playthroughs and individual choices was a great experience. It's a strange phenomena for video games. Being in the discussion circle of new releases will always been one of most rewarding experiences, aside from actually playing a game, and it was especially fun with The Walking Dead.

As groundbreaking as the serialized distribution was for players, Telltale Games found new and interesting ways of taking advantage of the episodic content. The developers took feedback and statistics from players after each episode, learned from the communities reactions and refined each iteration. I'm by no means a developer, but you'd have to imagine that using all this information allows Telltale Games to tailor their titles and make them speak to an audience in a way that the standard retail release just couldn't. Just like sequels often refine systems to make a better game, episodic games can be responsive on a more effective level and address issues quickly and significantly.

Close

The Walking Dead isn't a technical behemoth, but as an industry we've spent countless years commending technical achievements. While other games are playing by standards set for decades, The Walking Dead takes a step back, deconstructs the notion of what a game should be and delivers a different approach to interactive storytelling that can't be understated. For as long as the games industry has written off the idea or possibility of a genuinely well-made game story, The Walking Dead deserves notice for having done just that. It legitimized a medium of art as a storytelling device, stripped away the barrier that would have made it impossible for the average person to experience that story and did it interactively enough to make the experience exclusive to video games. As years go by and game writers find new creative ways of immersing players into the diverse worlds of video games, we will look back on what Telltale Games has done and regard it as a major turning point for interactive media.